Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Will the Committee on Energy, Environment, and Sustainability please come to order? I'd like to welcome Committee Vice Chair Dos Santos-Tam and Councilmember Estobo and Tupoula to the chamber. I believe we also have Councilmember Kiana on her way. Pursuant to Section 92-3.7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, this meeting will be conducted as a remote meeting by interactive conference technology with the following procedures in effect for the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda in two ways, remotely and in-person in the council chamber. Remote and in-person oral testimony will be allowed when the agenda item is taken up. As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii, pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the state constitution and Section 1-13 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Ololo, Hawaii, additional time as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony if they so wish. Before testifying, each person shall state their name. Each speaker may not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a one minute presentation on each item. All persons who have registered to testify remotely by video conference or phone will be called upon first. When your name is called, please monitor your screen and activate your audio feed when prompted. I will then give persons who have not registered an opportunity to offer testimony. Please utilize the raised hand feature in Zoom to be called upon. For those who are joining us by telephone only, please press star nine to indicate your desire to speak. I'll identify you by the last three digits of your phone number. When your number is called, please press star six to unmute yourself when prompted. Some friendly reminders and tips. Video conference from a quiet location if possible. If you're also watching the proceedings on a little, please mute your television at the time you're called to testify. When the timer on the screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. Once all the remote testifiers have testified, I'll proceed to in-person testimony in the council chamber. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to speak following the oral testimonies of the registered speakers. HRS section 92-3.7 requires all votes at remote meetings to be conducted by roll call unless unanimous. Therefore, I will first call for objections, and if there are any, I will call for a roll call vote. I believe we don't have any council members participating from outside the chamber today. All note, written testimonies including the testifier's address, email address, and phone number will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please turn off all phones. And we'll go to item number one for action, resolution 26-130, confirming the reappointment of Ms. Melanie Islam to serve on the Climate Change Commission of the City and County of Honolulu for a term to expire on June 30th, 2031. Members, we have a hand-carried CD1, OCS 2026-444-7-10-2026, timed 11.32 a.m., submitted by myself. The CD1 makes the following amendments. amending the title of the resolution treat as follows, confirming the reappointment of Melanie Islam to serve on the Climate Change Commission of the City and County of Honolulu, adds a new third whereas clause to set forth the appointment authority for and the terms of office of members of the Climate Change Commission. and amending the former third whereas clause as a new fourth whereas clause, identify a mayor's message letter by its official communication as Mayor's Message 72-2026, and then correcting the spelling of the first name of the nominee, as well as making miscellaneous technical and non-substantive amendments. And again, apologies to the nominee for those typos. And we'll go ahead and ask her to come up as well. So we have Melanie Islam, appointee to the commission. I'll go ahead and turn it over to you if you wanted to just share a little bit with the committee before we go into testimony.

Good afternoon, Chair Weyer, members of the committee. Thank you so much for having me here. I met a few of you at the council hearing last week, but my name is Melanie Islam. I've had the privilege of serving on the Climate Change Commission for the last five years, two of which I served as chair. I fit the role of the built environment. I work as a practicing architect and sustainability director at Mason. We're a local firm that's been practicing in Hawaii for over 40 years. And the insight that I like to bring to the commission is really about our built environment and how can we make that a more resilient and equitable place, really taking opportunity of kind of development timelines and priorities with the city and sort of synergizing that with climate adaptation. So that's what I like to offer, but I'm happy for the reappointment nomination.

Appreciate that. And of course, grateful for your willingness to serve. Any questions for the nominee? Yes, Council Member Tupola.

Just real briefly, thank you again for being willing to be reappointed. What is something that you did on the Climate Change Commission that you really liked? Just so that I know. I mean, we don't often get to see all of the movement of what the Climate Commission does. So I know that you've already served. So could you share maybe something small with us?

Yeah, aside from the two documents, the greenhouse gas emission reduction and urban heat contribution said that, the one thing that we've done recently under my chair has really been collaborating more with the office. We've been doing in-person meetings twice a year, and I found that to be quite effective in terms of aligning the insights that we bring, which is in alignment with the charter and the work that the office is doing from an implementation standpoint. So it's just an opportunity to synergize good minds from both ends on aligned work.

Thank you so much for sharing, and I appreciate your willingness to volunteer again. Thank you, Chair.

Of course, thank you. And seeing no other questions, we'll go ahead and go into testimony. No remote testifiers, either registered or online, will go to in-person. With no registered testifiers, anyone wishing to testify can come up to the podium. But seeing none, we'll go ahead and close testimony and go into discussion. I just wanted to reiterate how appreciative I am, and I think your background in particular will provide insight for the city, particularly as we're going forward and looking at ways, as we talked about earlier, in navigating increased housing opportunities and development, particularly in TOD. How do we do that in a way that keeps sustainability and resilience front of mind? And so appreciate that. Was there any other discussion from the committee? I'm seeing none. We'll go ahead and close discussion as well And the chair's gonna first recommend that resolution 26-130 be amended to the hand-carried CD1 OCS 2026-0444. Any discussion, objections, or reservations? Seeing none, the resolution has been amended to CD1 and chair's then gonna recommend that resolution 26-130 CD1 be reported out for adoption. Any discussions, objections, or reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. Perfect, so we'll see you at the full council meeting. And we'll go ahead and move on to agenda item number two, resolution 26158, urging the city administration to conduct a citywide energy vulnerability assessment and to report its findings and recommendations to the council. Council Member Rosanto, Sam, did you wanna share a few thoughts on the resolution?

Sure. Thank you. And thank you, Chair, for hearing this measure. It's pretty self-explanatory. But what really, I think, gave a lot more impetus to getting this underway is during the budget process, we heard about how rising energy costs are going to be impacting the city's bottom line and how that's going to also affect the people of this island when the cost of city services go up. We heard that operating the bus and handy van, for example, is going to go up by millions of dollars because gas prices are going up we also looked at the expenditures of various departments right we have many different fuel servicing stations around the island for the city's fleet many of those have different types of gasoline that they provide at different prices and that's also a question right how can we do a better job of consolidating some of these things saving money and that's exactly what this energy vulnerability assessment is intended to do

Mahalo, appreciate that. I know we do have Dr. Kailoha-Fox present. No pressure, because I know it's council initiated, but did you have any initial comments you wanted to provide on the resolution on behalf of the administration?

Thank you, Chair Weyer. Members of the committee, Kealoha Fox for CCSR. We just wanna start by thanking the administration. The administration wants to thank council for your continued interest on how we can continue to improve some of our performance. One of the areas that CCSR does oversee is the city's report card for some of the sustainable data factors. And so we refer to that as the annual sustainability report. This year we're proud in our eighth publication that we're able to monitor some of these rates and we have not been able to link it yet to some of the cost benefits and cost savings. So this does present interesting questions for us and it will allow me to be able to work directly with Director Kawano and his team to see what we might be able to investigate further. And then just looking to you, Committee Chair Weyer, if there's an opportunity for us in your August EES Committee, we would be pleased to present to Council the annual sustainability report and some of the figures and findings that the data has been able to bring to light in this eighth publication. And then that will also present an opportunity for you folks as council to provide any recommendations or areas that you would like us to look into as we get ready for the ninth publication that we typically publish around Earth Day in honor of Earth Month every year. But within ordinance, we look to make sure that it comes and is transmitted to you by April 30th annually.

Mahalo for that. Appreciate it. Any other questions or any questions for Director? Okay, seeing none, we'll go to testimony real quick and then we'll come back into discussion. So we don't have any registered online or anyone waiting online to testify and no registered in person. Anyone wishing to testify in chamber can come forward. But seeing none, we'll go ahead and close testimony and go back into discussion. And we're down for that. And so I think unless there's any comments or feedback from the committee, we'll plan on having the sustainability report on the August agenda. And of course adjust if any other issues arise for discussion. Was there any additional discussion before I make my recommendations or questions for the director? Okay, seeing none. Mahalo again for that insight. So chair's gonna recommend then that resolution 26158 be reported out for adoption, seeing no additional discussion, objections or reservations, so ordered. And that'll bring us to agenda item number three, resolution 26161, requesting the city administration to develop minimum standards for all resilience hubs constructed or retrofitted, using the funds appropriated in the fiscal year 2027 executive capital budget. Members, I do have a hand-carried CD1, OCS 2026-0448-7-13-2026, time 10.17 a.m., submitted by myself. It does make the following amendments, which I do believe I have to read because it's a hand-carried. Yeah. Okay, so sorry, they're a little long, but we'll get through it. So A deletes the first and second where's clause. B adds new first, second, and third where's clause to read as follows. Where's the Ola O'ahu resilience strategy prepared by the city and county of Honolulu and released in 2019 calls for the city to work with individuals, neighborhoods, and institutions to develop a network of resilience hubs, action 15. to foster resilience to prepare communities for the increasing threats of hurricanes, floods, and extreme weather. And whereas the Wahoo Community Resilience Hub Network Planning Initiative, released in 2023, was prepared by the University of Wyoming NOAA Department of Urban and Regional Planning in collaboration with the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency, the Center for Resilience Neighborhoods, and community partners across Wahoo, And whereas the planning initiative identified five criteria to support the suitability analysis for the potential locations of community resilience hubs, community support, proximity to critical infrastructure, hazard vulnerability, transportation accessibility, and social vulnerability. Okay, you know what? Committee, we're gonna stop there, because as a heads up, I was gonna be recommending deferral in the committee, and so that'll save us a little bit of time on reading the explanation, because we can defer as is, and then make amendments to the CD. So with that, having co-intro, or postponed, yeah. Having said that, Council Member Kiana, did you want to share a few words? I know this was a co-intro resolution.

I just want to mahalo you for your leadership on this. I think it's critically important. I think we all know that we need to have resiliency hubs in our respective districts, but given the fact that there is funding in the budgetary cycle, I think it's very important that we have minimum standards so that we do it the right way. And just given what's going on, not just here, but even in the region, I mean, I don't know how many more super typhoons the Northern Marianas can take. And I just think that in building up and strengthening and hardening our resiliency hubs is gonna have to be a critical component. So that's all, I just look forward to continuing dialogue with the administration and yourself as we move forward on this measure.

I appreciate that. And couldn't have said it better. I was just talking to a friend from Guam at a wedding the other day and just how they designed completely differently in preparation for these larger storms. And of course, historically, they've experienced more. But I know... Of course, being in the year that we are with El Nino, but also just seeing the storms over the past few months, it's definitely top of mind for everyone, and so look forward to continued collaboration and uplifting, I think, the budget addition that this council supported. I think this is an opportunity for us to really work collaboratively with the administration. With that, we both have Deputy Director Jennifer Walter here from Department of Emergency Management and Director Kealoha Fox with CCSR. So I think there's going to be some collaboration on this. I'm sorry, I invite either of you to come up if you wanted to share a little bit about anticipated work going forward. And then, of course, we can entertain questions of either of them that are here if there are any. Over to you, Dr. Fox.

Thank you, Council Member Weier. Kayla Fox for CCSR. We just want to start by thanking Council for your responsiveness and the feedback that you've been receiving from the public and the community, especially around how do we have better island-wide resilience, and that's something that you have been strong champions of and helped us invest in through CCSR from our very early beginnings all the way through our present budget and our Climate Resiliency Fund. We want to work deeply in collaboration with the Department of Emergency Management to make sure that what we put together here does show a growing need for how city facilities and our capacity here in the city could be better coordinated and better managed. But we'll be able to turn it over to Jennifer as we think through some of the ways that we can work through any emergency management or disaster components where we refer to them. as the lead agency for those types of measures and management within our administrative structure. Mohano.

Perfect, appreciate that. And see Deputy Director coming up as well, so I'll turn it over to you.

Hi, Jennifer Walter, Deputy Director for the Department of Emergency Management. I also want to thank you for your attention to this and the need for more resilient spaces and communities. And we really look forward to the conversation. Just a few things to consider, I think, as we go through this process is, one, the way that we've been socializing the idea of resilience hubs is not just a disaster mission. And I think because 99.9% of the time it might have another function, maybe consideration of the day-to-day functions any city invested in facilities might perform. I also think that maybe part of our discussion could be retrofit and not just construction of new facilities. There were 135 potential sites that communities identified during a CCSR funded project to engage with community on Resilience Hub. some of which were city facilities, some of which were not. And if we limit ourselves to just new construction, we may limit what we could do. Not everything, every resilience hub may be a shelter, but it may could have a backup power communication. So I think looking a little more expansively would be something that we would encourage as part of this resolution, but we really look forward to the conversation. Thank you.

Thank you. Really appreciate that insight. And also just wanted to personally mahalo you for all of your work, particularly over the past few months, you know, in responding to the Konolo storms. It was definitely seen and appreciated, and I think made a real tangible impact in the lives of our residents and district too, and I'm sure all of O'ahu, so mahalo for that. Any questions from the committee of either director? Okay, appreciate that. So we'll go over to, testimony and i don't believe we have anyone no one online yeah so let's see clerk waving her hand so no testifiers online will go to in person seeing no one and anyone wishing to testify again can come forward but see no one will go ahead and in discussion or end testimony and go into discussion any additional discussion or questions before i make my recommendation Okay, seeing none, so being extremely grateful for the collaboration with the administration and welcoming their input, and of course we'll continue to have community conversations as well. Chair's gonna recommend that action on resolution 26161 be postponed to a time and date to be determined by the committee chair. Seeing no discussion, objections, or reservations on that, so ordered. and committee that therefore brings us to the end. So it'll be no further business. This meeting is adjourned. Mahalo.